The AD's Feb. 16th edition ran an article about funding and manning of CSA-F. It starts off with the good news that the CSA-F is funded through 2024 but bemoans the fact that the $1.3 million had to come from a one time federal funding allocation for such purposes. I guess it is seen as a short term fix and only kicks the can down the road, so to speak. What is perplexing is that 26 years ago when CSA-F was formed the residents approved a "Special Fire Tax" to add professional firefighters to properly protect non-agricultural properties. 26 years later the cost of everything has increased and they again have a dollar shortfall of approximately $700K/year. What exactly is precluding these folks from voting another special tax to cover this shortfall? It's either that or do what appears to be a do nothing approach and rob Peter to pay Paul. My impression is that the funding process is convoluted and unresponsive to what needs to be accomplished. (I doubt I could do better but it seems someone needs to take a sword to this Gordian Knot.)
One thing I keep coming back to is the fact that Sutter County is 602 square miles of which 88% is prime agricultural land. Last time I checked this land produced $700M dollars worth of food product yearly of which none is taxable by Sutter County.? With the rate of inflation on food this dollar figure probably now exceeds the $1 Billion mark. Would it really hurt the agricultural community to fund things like fire protection or otherwise return some of the bounty? The additional irony is the Flood Plain. While the plain restricts development it is the very essence of what makes Sutter such a "Horn of Plenty" to the US and world food markets.
